The present disclosure relates generally to a surgical retractor assembly and an associated method of using of the retractor assembly.
In a surgical procedure in which a bone plate is attached to a fractured long bone, a surgeon creates an incision in a patient to expose a portion of the fractured long bone. Thereafter, the bone plate is advanced through the incision to a location adjacent to the long bone. Then, a drill is advanced in alignment with one of the central screw openings in the bone plate and a hole is drilled in the bone in alignment with the central screw opening. A screw is thereafter advanced through the incision and screwed into the bone through the central screw opening.
After the bone plate is partially attached to the fractured long bone with the bone screw as described above, it may be necessary to pull a patient's tissue to expose the other screw openings in the bone plate such as the terminal screw openings. Common Hohman surgical retractors have been used achieve the above exposure. For example, a Hohman surgical retractor has a finger at a distal end of the retractor. The retractor is then oriented transverse to the axis of the long bone, and the finger of the retractor is urged against the fractured bone and/or side edge of the bone plate. Then, the retractor is pivoted to act as a second class lever to pull the patient's tissue in a direction transverse to the axis of the long bone so as to expose a portion of the bone plate. By using a number of Hohman retractors simultaneously, the surgeon can typically expose enough of the bone plate and fractured bone to access all the bone screw holes of the bone plate including the terminal ones at its most extreme proximal end portion and distal end portion to carry out the above-described bone drilling and bone screw placement.
When performing a minimally invasive surgical procedure to attach a bone plate to a fractured long bone, a surgeon may create an incision that is significantly shorter than the bone plate which is being implanted. Working through the relatively small incision, a drill may be advanced in alignment with one of the central screw openings in the bone plate and a hole is drilled in the bone in alignment with the central screw opening. A screw is thereafter advanced through the small incision and screwed into the bone through the central screw opening in typical fashion. However, retraction of the patient's tissue in a direction transverse to the axis of the long bone with Hohman retractors often times is not adequate to expose the terminal bone screw holes located in the distal and proximal end portions of the bone plate.
What is needed therefore is an improved retractor that is able to be used with a bone plate to adequately expose all the bone screw openings of the bone plate including the terminal openings. What is further needed is an improved retractor that is able to be used with a bone plate to adequately expose all the bone screw openings of the bone plate when the bone plate is implanted through a relatively small incision.